Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Data Annotation Industry." This policy aims to promote the professionalization and intelligence of the data annotation industry to foster innovation and application in artificial intelligence.
Among the proposals, there is a focus on cultivating and attracting high-end professionals through talent project plans and technology projects. National occupational standards related to artificial intelligence training and data annotation will be formulated (or revised). The integration of industry, academia, and research will be deepened, encouraging long-term cooperative mechanisms between industry alliances, universities, research institutions, and enterprises, while increasing collaboration on data annotation practice projects, continuing education, and the construction of public training bases. Industry organizations, educational institutions, and social training evaluation organizations will carry out recognition of vocational skills levels related to data annotation. Support will be provided for the mutual recognition of vocational qualifications and skill levels in the data annotation field, facilitating talent development pathways. A tiered data annotation talent pool will be established to strengthen industry talent support.
According to the opinions, in the future, the new development concept will be fully implemented to promote data development and utilization, aiming to build new advantages in international competition. By 2027, the country aims to achieve significant growth in the scale and innovation capacity of the data annotation industry, with an expected average annual compound growth rate exceeding 20%. By then, a number of influential technology-oriented data annotation companies will be cultivated, and a series of distinct data annotation bases will be established.
In terms of demand, the opinions suggest deepening the demand for public data annotation and promoting the application of artificial intelligence in government services, urban governance, and other areas. Additionally, enterprises are encouraged to explore their own data annotation needs in production management, especially in industries such as transportation, healthcare, and finance, to promote the construction of high-quality datasets.
To enhance innovation-driven development, the policy indicates the need to tackle key technological challenges and support the research and development of intelligent tools such as multi-modal annotation and quality assessment. Furthermore, a comprehensive data annotation standards system will be established to promote collaborative innovation within the industry.
The policy also emphasizes the need to strengthen business entities, support the development of leading data annotation enterprises, and facilitate connections between small and medium-sized enterprises and third-party institutions such as financial services to accelerate industry development. By building a public service platform for data annotation, the capacity for resource aggregation in the industry will be enhanced, ensuring the safe development of the annotation industry and the construction of a skilled workforce.
